I Have a Large, Thick Sausage
by The Writer Triumphant
Summary: Well, there was me. And there was Sora, the kid who showed up one day, claiming to be my long lost twin. There was Axel, who was trying to worm his way into my heart. And my pants. And there was Riku. But you don't care about him. [AU] [AkuRoku] [RikuSora
1. Chapter 1

**I Have a Large, Thick Sausage

* * *

**

**Opening Note: **First off, let me apologize for the title. Not the title itself, actually. I think it's amusing. But I apologize for anyone who is like me and feels somewhat chagrined at the thought of being caught reading a story with such a title. But the title is for my coworker, who once announced that his favorite part of the day was when someone ordered a large sausage pizza on thick crust so that he could call out, "I have a large, thick sausage". Yes, it's a little immature. But think of it as someone trying to bring something imaginative to their otherwise monotonous workday.

**Disclaimer:** I claim no legal rights to these characters. I do not even want to own legal rights to them. They give me enough trouble already.

**Dedication: **To the writers on FFnet who are, in my humble opinion, the best. There are very few. I can count them on one hand.

I also dedicate this to my two best friends in the world. My two little sisters who laughed their cute heads off when I read them this first chapter.

* * *

**Chapter One: Long Lost**

**I hate _SpongeBob Squarepants_. **I often wonder how desperate for new ideas Nickelodeon was when they had to pitch a cartoon idea featuring a yellow sponge who flips burgers for a living. But as much as I hated that overly cheerful character, my life was like his. I had a simple fast food job – though making gourmet style pizzas is a lot better than flipping burgers – a nice little yellow house – though it was more of a golden yellow than a pineapple yellow – and a rather grumpy neighbor named Cid. I also had a pet dog named Pluto – not a sea snail – and a best friend named Hayner – not a dumpy idiot.

So my life was like that cartoon in one way or another. I'd wake up, play with Pluto and then go hang out with Hayner, Pence and Olette, and then get to work for the rest of the day.

I worked at Sunset Plaza Pizzeria, a small high quality pizza place. Business wasn't exactly booming, and Cid often reminisced about long weekends when the place got "slammed". We made enough to get by, and as a result, we couldn't have more than three employees working at a time. Usually it was me making the pizza, Cid taking calls and Pence making deliveries. Sometimes I helped deliver if it got that busy, and Hayner got the opportunity to make a few extra munny making pizza. Hayner worked odd jobs mostly, and Olette did pretty well working at the tailor's shop. Every month if we could we'd scrape together some munny and try to go to the beach. It only happened once, and we got there too late because the train fare was cheaper after 3 pm.

I was happy with my life.

And then Sora came.

It was the day before my 19th Birthday, and I was going to spend it in on the couch playing _Keyblade Hero II_. No interruptions. I'd even got the day off from work, a rare privilege. The doorbell rang sometime after noon, and I pulled Pluto away from the door by the collar. He was a loveable, dopey animal and got excited when he knew there was company. I was trying really hard not to blow up at him, though. Or whoever had the gall to disrupt my day off.

The guy standing there was about an inch shorter than me with wild chocolate hair that stuck up every which way – geysers and waterfalls – with a feral grin to match that looked a pain to keep up for longer than five seconds. He wore a white T-shirt and a loose black hoodie vest over it, faded red cargo shorts hanging down to his knees and a pair of beat up, pineapple yellow sandals. Around his neck was a heavy silver chain with a crown charm.

"Roxas!" he said, voice full of fondness and delight like it should be when greeting a close friend.

But I didn't know this guy. For his clothes I figured that he was from the islands, but that was pretty much it. That and his favorite cartoon was probably _Spongebob Squarepants_.

"Uh… hello."

He smiled again and trained his eyes on me, eyes that were an eerie mirror image of mine.

'You're probably going to think this is really weird," he began, and I quirked an eyebrow, resisting the urge to tell him that he was the weirdest thing that had ever showed up on my doorstep apart from that thing my mom mailed me last Christmas.

"But…" he paused, trying to figure out the best way to announce whatever it was he'd come all this way to tell me.

"I'm your long lost twin brother."

I slammed the door in his face, vowing that if this was some sort of prank from Hayner, I was going to scrawl "Hayner's D CK" on his struggle bat with a pink Sharpie.

The doorbell rang again, and I sighed.

"Look, I'm not in the mood for practical jokes right now. I'm trying to enjoy my day off."

"But Roxas!" he protested, rummaging frantically though his backpack. "I have proof!"

He pulled out a document sealed in a clear folder. A birth certificate.

"See?" He held it out to me, pointing. "I was born one minute and twenty seven seconds before you. Our mom is Setsuna Iriyama and our dad is Koji Iriyama. We were born on June 27th at Sunset Place Hospital."

I took the cirtifacte from him and looked it over for a few minutes, coming to the conclusion that it was either legit or a very good knock off.

"I think we'd better call mom, little bro," Sora said, reaching down to scratch behind Pluto's ear.

* * *

**- The Writer**


	2. Chapter 2

**I Have a Large, Thick Sausage**

**Opening Note: **First off, let me apologize for the title. Not the title itself, actually. I think it's amusing. But I apologize for anyone who is like me and feels somewhat chagrined at the thought of being caught reading a story with such a title. But the title is for my coworker, who once announced that his favorite part of the day was when someone ordered a large sausage pizza on thick crust so that he could call out, "I have a large, thick sausage". Yes, it's a little immature. But think of it as someone trying to bring something imaginative to their otherwise monotonous workday.

* * *

**Disclaimer:** I claim no legal rights to these characters. I do not even _want_ to own legal rights to them. They give me enough trouble already.

**Dedication: **To the writers on FFnet who are, in my humble opinion, the best. There are very few. I can count them on one hand.

* * *

**Two: O, Brother, Where Art Thou?**

"**Aye-aye, Captain!"**

I groaned and rolled over, pulling the covers over my head. Apparently, I had been correct in assuming that Sora's favorite cartoon was Spongebob. First thing he does is turn on the TV and find Nickelodeon. I'm _so_ going to sue those freaks.

"Sora, would you please turn that down?" I slurred, burrowing further into the couch cushions. Last night, after calling Mom and confirming that Sora and I were actually related, Sora insisted we camp out in the living room. "It'll be a sleepover!" my hyper twin had exclaimed, crushing me in a huge hug. I was still in shock from learning I had another sibling to argue much. Sora helped me drag the spare mattress and a load of blankets into the living room and we made up our beds. At first I thought it would be awkward, but Sora was so high on energy (and probably coconuts) that he did most of the talking for both of us, and as the night wore on, I felt like I knew him. And like he knew me.

"Hey Roxas," he said once there was a commercial and the TV was back down to a suitable volume.

"What?"

"Are you gay?"

I sat up, choking on spit and possibly some of Pluto's hairs that were stuck to the couch. I stared wide-eyed at my near mirror image, blinking in shock at his innocent demeanor.

"I just thought," he continued, as though we were discussing a math problem involving train A and train B, "That since I am, and you're my twin, you must be. But maybe you're not, since we grew up apart?"

It took me a solid two minutes to form words.

"I. Am. Not."

"Oh." He didn't seem too disappointed. A flicker of a leprechaun's grin lit his smile. "Then who's Axel?"

Again, I found myself at a loss for words. I didn't recall mentioning Axel in all the time that I'd known Sora. Axel was my coworker. The assistant manager, to be specific. He was a freak who enjoyed messing with the ovens to "increase firepower" and hitting on anything that moved. Mainly me. He had the crazy idea that I was attracted to him. Jerk.

I explained all of this to Sora and then rolled back over into the couch, only just remembering that it was my Birthday. Our Birthday. I opened my mouth to wish Sora a happy one when he spoke again.

"If he's such a jerk, then why were you moaning his name in your sleep?"

I groaned inwardly and rolled over to face Sora. The truth was, I'd been having a dream where Axel threw me down on the cutting table (or was it the dough rolling table?) and had his way with me. There was alfredo sauce involved, now that I recall. And it didn't mean anything. Dreams like that were perfectly normal. It meant my hormones were up and running. I explained all of this to him, told him to get back to his cartoon, and once again, pulled the blankets over me, determined to forget that my first real conversation with my brother was about my sexual orientation.

"Happy Birthday, Roxas."

I sighed.

"Happy Birthday, Sora."

* * *

**We'd been born in the middle of a military coup.** That means the people overthrew their government. Namely, the people of the island overthrew their President. Some guy named Xemnas. Anyway, our parents were living on the island at the time. Mom was rushed to the hospital just before it was declared a sanctuary. A lot of people died in the streets that day by army officials on Xemnas' side, trying to get things back under control. Our dad was one of them. Meanwhile, Mom was in labor, and after we were born, she decided that she was going to take the next ferry to the mainland so we'd be safe. A lot of other women were doing the same thing. So as soon as she could walk, she arranged it. The whole place was being evacuated, and in the midst of all this, they mixed up Sora with some other kid. Mom knew it wasn't her baby, so in the chaos of everything, the hospital told her that he had died. Mom was sad, of course, but she took me and got us away from the island.

Sora was left behind with a handful of other kids, and when the coup ended, they were put into an orphanage, most of the paperwork proving who they were having been destroyed. Sora was adopted, and he grew up thinking his parents had died in the coup. I grew up never knowing I had a brother. Mom didn't want me to be sad. Eventually, Sora wanted to know the names of his real parents, and his adoptive father and mother helped him find the records. He visited dad's grave, but was overjoyed to see that Mom wasn't dead, after all. He did more research, and found me.

* * *

"**Can I come with you?"**

"What for?"

"Roxas," Sora protested, "We've been separated our whole lives! Now that I've found you, I want to spend _every waking moment_ together!"

"You're starting to freak me out."

He pouted. "Please?"

I sighed. "Fine. But if you mention anything to Axel about this morning, you'll wish you were an only child."

"Thanks, Roxas!" he hugged me and went in search of his sandals. Probably being chewed up by Pluto.

I changed into my dark khaki work pants and purple shirt with "Sunset Plaza Pizzeria" embroidered on it. Sora, after chasing Pluto around the apartment for five minutes, finally got a hold of his other sandal, and we left. I didn't have a car and since Sora didn't have a skateboard, we elected to take the trolley. Sora loved it. He hung onto the bars at the back and hung over the edge, ignoring my warnings that he would fall and scrape his face off.

"Is making pizza fun?" he asked as we entered the place. There were a few customers sitting and watching a Blitzball match on TV. Some little kids in the back were fighting over the _Gummi Ship Wars_ game, and Axel was taking a phone order.

Not waiting for my answer, Sora waltzed right up to the counter and folded his arms over the menu, favoring Axel with a sweet smile. Axel almost dropped the phone. Sora turned and winked at me and I rolled my eyes.

"And who is this little angel?" Axel asked when he'd hung up.

"I'm Roxas's brother."

"I didn't know Roxas had a brother."

"Neither did he!" Sora said, laughing.

I didn't have time to wonder weather Sora and Axel getting along was a good thing. There were pizzas to make.

* * *

**- The Writer**


	3. Chapter 3

**I Have a Large, Thick Sausage

* * *

**

**Opening Note: **First off, let me apologize for the title. Not the title itself, actually. I think it's amusing. But I apologize for anyone who is like me and feels somewhat chagrined at the thought of being caught reading a story with such a title. But the title is for my coworker (henceforth to be known as The Muse), who once announced that his favorite part of the day was when someone ordered a large sausage pizza on thick crust so that he could call out, "I have a large, thick sausage". Yes, it's a little immature. But think of it as someone trying to bring something imaginative to their otherwise monotonous workday.

**Disclaimer:** I claim no legal rights to these characters. I do not even _want_ to own legal rights to them. They give me enough trouble already.

**Dedication: **To the writers on FFnet who are, in my humble opinion, the best. There are very few. I can count them on one hand.

Especially to **Dualism**!

Yesterday when I read her review, I almost started writing this chapter right away. Because it made me that happy. Only, I had no basic outline for this chapter. And I had to go to work. But! Since I work at making pizza, I was able to outline this chapter in my head while I worked! Whoo!

Thanks to The Muse for the opening part.

* * *

**Three: Another Mother**

**That damn machine.** I reached over the pizza board to snatch the order for a Sunset Special. The phone rang, and I stuck the order on the table and picked it up, narrowly missing getting caught up in the cord.

"Thank you for calling Sunset Plaza Pizzeria. This is Roxas. How can I help you?"

There was a pause on the other end, and then the customer spoke, an obvious smirk in his voice.

"Yeah, I'd like a large, thick sausage."

I blinked.

"What kind of sauce, sir?"

"White."

"Any other toppings?"

"Oh, that won't be necessary. I'll be on top."

"AXEL, YOU PERVERT!" I said, chagrined, reaching for what I thought was the order printing machine, but was really my alarm clock.

"Good morning, blondie." Calm and cocky as ever. Bastard.

"Save it for the customers," I hissed, untangling myself from my sheets, still irked at the fact that once again I'd answered my cell phone like I was at work. At ten in the morning.

"_Someone_ woke up on the wrong side of the bed," Axel chuckled.

"What do you want, Axel?" I demanded, not in the mood for a friendly chat so soon after I woke up. I wasn't a morning person.

"Besides you?"

I groaned. "I'm hanging up the phone."

"Talk about bitchy with a capital 'B'," Axel muttered, and I had to smile. "Just calling to ask you to come to work an hour early if you can. I need you here so that I can get some of the cutting done."

"Sure."

I hung up, shoving my phone under my pillow so that I wouldn't hear it if he called back. Pluto was asleep on the end of my bed still, so I got dressed and washed.

"Chocolate chip pancakes, Roxas!" Sora called from the kitchen. He and Mom had been up since late last night when she came. They'd spent the whole night talking, Sora having inherited her talkative, high-energy nature. Breakfast was nice. Mom pulled out all the stops and made all my favorite foods. Most of them were Sora's favorite, too, apparently.

"So how long will you be staying, Honey?" Mom asked Sora.

"Well, I dunno. A couple of weeks. My adoptive parents said I should take my time. And I want to be with Roxas."

"Well, I'd like to meet these people. They seem very nice and I want to thank them for helping you find us," Mom said. "Who are they?"

"My adopted name is Peña," Sora replied.

I dropped my fork.

"As in pineapples?" I asked.

"Pineapples?" Mom asked, looking confused.

"Peña's Pineapples?" I elaborated.

"Peña's Paradise Pineapples," Sora corrected. "Oh!" he laughed. "Yeah. That's dad's company."

He continued eating as though there was nothing extraordinary about it, while I wondered how my brother could neglect to tell me that he was the adoptive son of Destiny Island's richest family. Maybe he didn't realize how important that was.

* * *

**"So this is your brother?"**

"Yeah. Sora, this is Hayner, my best friend."

Most people shake hands when they meet someone. Some people just don't. Sora hugs people. Hayner looked a little surprised, but not angry, so I figured they could get along.

"Hey!" Sora said suddenly. "Why don't we all go to the beach nest week when Roxas has a day off?"

Hayner, Pence, Olette and I looked around. "Uh…"

"I don't think it's in the budget any time soon," Olette confirmed.

Sora tilted his head to the side. "We can take my boat!"

"Your boat?" Hayner asked, speaking slowly.

"Yeah. Highwind."

"I might have forgot to mention Sora's loaded," I added.

Sora gave me a quizzical look, then smiled. "I need to go home next week to pick up some more clothes. And I want Roxas to meet my other family."

"Wait." Pence finally spoke. "You mean Destiny Islands beach?"

Sora nodded.

"Awesome!"

I didn't worry about Sora getting along with my friends after that. Though I wondered what his friends would think of me.

After work, Sora and I went for sea salt ice cream, and I vented at him a bit about Axel and work in general. Our sales were sinking, and if it didn't pick up fast, I was going to lose my job. And the pizzeria would possibly be shut down.

"Hey, Roxas?"

"What?" I sensed by his smile that he wasn't about to say something random to make me feel better. I actually had the weird feeling that Sora thought he had the solution to my problem.

"I have an idea."

"I kind of had the feeling…" I said, smiling in pure awe.

"It's our twin super powers kicking in!" Sora cried.

I groaned. "Just tell me your idea."

"Well," he began, not at all fazed that I'd shot down his 'twin super powers' theory, "I noticed that none of the pizzas on your menu have pineapple in them."

I agreed, and we discussed possible pineapple creations as we walked back to the apartment.

Pluto jumped on both of us when we came in the door, and we played _Whirlwind Lancer III_ before bed. Sora slept on the couch again. I fell asleep thinking of pineapple pizza, and woke up to a shout and the front door slamming.

I rolled over and looked at the clock. Nine thirty. I got out of bed and wandered into the living room, where Sora was leaning against the front door, a panicked look on his face.

"What is it?" I asked, concerned.

"It's… Riku." Sora breathed, his tone incredulous.

I pushed him aside and opened the door. Right away, my first impression of Riku was this:

Riku looked like a jackass.

His hair was that of a French prostitute.

He wore Hawaiian Mafia regalia.

Okay. I wasn't too sure that Hawaii had a mafia. But if they did, Riku was a shoe in. His clothes were of the same loose style as Sora's, but not as faded, and cleaner. A pale yellow linen shirt and dark blue pants of an expensive looking material no one in the city wore. His hair was a sort of silver with an undertone of some kind of blue, and his eyes were intense blue green. He wore the same expression Axel wore when I walked into work, and right away I knew that this guy was Sora's Axel.

"You must be Roxas."

I favored him with my best 'fuck-off' face.

"I came looking for Sora."

"I don't think he wants to see you right now."

"Very well. Please tell him that I will return tomorrow."

"Whatever." I closed the door and waited until I saw him walk down the street though the window before turning to Sora. "So?"

He laughed nervously.

* * *

**-The Writer**


	4. Chapter 4

**I Have a Large, Thick Sausage

* * *

**

**Opening Note: **The title is for my coworker (henceforth to be known as The Muse or Great Lord of Pizza Ovens), who once announced that his favorite part of the day was when someone ordered a large sausage pizza on thick crust for dine in so that he could call out, "I have a large, thick sausage". Yes, it's a little immature. But think of it as someone trying to bring something imaginative to their otherwise monotonous workday.

**Disclaimer:** I claim no legal rights to these characters. I do not even _want_ to own legal rights to them. They give me enough trouble already.

**Dedication: **To the writers on FFnet who are, in my humble opinion, the best. There are very few. I can count them on one hand.

Especially to **Dualism**!

* * *

**Four: Seasick**

**"He's kind of… peristant."**

"_Kind of_?" I asked, looking around at the two dozen plus bouquets of assorted flowers (over half of which I was allergic to).

"Okay, he's a stalker freak," Sora clarified.

He'd already explained to me that Riku was the son of another wealthy family, Miyano Industries, which pretty much partnered Peña's Paradise Pineapples. Anyway, Riku began stalking Sora when he was 15 and Sora was 14, after meeting him at a boring company social event. Riku asked Sora to marry him. Sora called Riku a pervert and immediately dumped a punchbowl of Peña's Paradise Pineapple Punch Potion Parade on his head.

Despite that, Sora managed to form a somewhat friendship with Riku, which came in useful when Sora was looking for me. It turns out dad used to work for Miyano Industries. That's how Sora found out what happened to dad and where he could find the grave.

"I didn't think he'd follow me…" Sora offered apologetically.

I would have been angry, but I thought it was amusing. Every time a new vase of flowers was delivered to the house he blushed and made me sign the form and then went into a rant about how stupid Riku was to follow him to Twilight Town and if he thought that he'd win his heart by buying out every florist's shop on Sunset Ave, he had another think coming, all while lovingly fingering the flowers. I actually thought Sora was flattered by all of this attention. I could tell he was the romantic type.

We moved all of the flowers to the back porch because my headache was getting worse, and got ready to go to the pizzeria. Sora had taken to following me there and ran around busing tables to help us, or cutting tomatoes or folding boxes. He didn't mind that he wasn't getting paid for it.

Axel was flirting with a brunette girl when we entered, and in the back her little sisters fought over whose turn it was on _Princess of Heart_. There were three orders waiting on the table for me, and once the girl had gone, Axel muttered that it was the most orders that had come in all day at once.

Sora gave me a half smile and went to clean up a table. The night previous we'd called Peña's Paradise Pineapples, and Sora's dad said it sounded like a good idea. We were keeping it a secret from Axel and Cid or now, though. At least until next week. We were going to Destiny Island on Highwind the next day to meet with Mr. Peña.

"Your shirt's not tucked in, Axel," I remarked while spreading cheese on an large classic vegetarian.

"Staring at my ass again, Roxas?"

I dropped the subject immediately and went back to feathering out the spinach and green olives to the edges of the pizza.

"You're breaking my heart, Roxas, ignoring me like this."

I convinced myself that I felt disgusted his voice at my ear and his hands light on my hips.

"You don't have a heart, Axel," I muttered, picking up the board and swinging around to slide the pie in the oven.

"That's mean, Roxas," he said, putting his hand over mine on the oven handle. I glared up at him.

"Instead of wasting your time on me," I said, "You should be focusing on the customers."

"What customers?" Axel questioned, glancing briefly over his shoulder before leaning closer to me. I convinced myself that I hated this closeness.

"Excuse me?"

Disappointment flashed a darker shade of jade green in Axel's eyes and he pulled away from me, turning to face the customer at the counter.

No, Riku. Sunset Plaza Pizzeria doesn't owe your Hawaiian mafia any protection money. Go away.

"Hello, Roxas."

I raised an eyebrow. "Riku Miyano. Quit sending flowers to my house. They give me a headache."

"Is this guy bothering you?" Axel sounded unlike himself. Possessive. Jealous. I convinced myself that I wasn't turned on by it.

"Sora, actually," I corrected. Riku seemed to visibly brighten at the name.

"Is he here?"

I glanced through the back and spotted him, paused with a knife half into a zucchini. He gave me a look and I winked.

"He went back home, actually," I lied. "He needed to get some clothes and stuff. He said he'd come back tomorrow."

Axel shot a puzzled look at me, but I ignored him.

"That's funny," Riku said. "I just passed the harbor, and Highwind was still there."

Shit.

"Then he's probably with our mom."

Riku bought the lie. And a personal pizza.

* * *

**I'd never been on a boat. **Not since I was a baby. The sea air smelled nice, but the bouncing of the waves made me sick to my stomach. Sora insisted I drink some pineapple juice, but I informed him that I was now anti-pineapple. I'd had enough. Highwind sported a huge pineapple design on her sail, the deck chairs were patterned with them, the plates and glasses were all pineapple-themed, and Sora's swimming trunks were adorned with pineapple rings. I was suffering from pineapple overload.

At least my friends were having a great time. They'd warmed up to Sora easily, and not just because he was wealthy. Sora let Pence take pictures of everything, let Hayner steer for a while, and danced with Olette.

Midcourse, he disappeared into the kitchen to make us something to eat, emerging a little later bearing a pineapple shaped tray of sandwiches.

"Hey all you people!" he sang. "Hey all you people!" Olette laughed and helped him with the pitcher of Pineapple Punch Potion Parade.

"Hey all you people! Won't you listen to me? I've just had a sandwich. No ordinary sandwich! A sandwich filled with jellyfish jelly!" I groaned. Pence began to sing along.

"Hey man, you gotta try this sandwich! It's no ordinary sandwich! It's the tastiest sandwich in the sea!"

We reached Destiny Island when the beach was at its best and spent the whole day there, swimming and surfing and building castles in the sand. I met Sora's adoptive family and together we persuaded Sora's dad to come back to Twilight Town with us to offer Cid a business deal.

* * *

**The Writer**

(The song is from Spongbob Squarepants. Special thanks to Waffle for writing them down for me!)


	5. Chapter 5

**I Have a Large, Thick Sausage

* * *

**

**Opening Note: **The title is for my coworker (henceforth to be known as The Muse or Great Lord of Pizza Ovens), who once announced that his favorite part of the day was when someone ordered a large sausage pizza on thick crust for dine in so that he could call out, "I have a large, thick sausage". Yes, it's a little immature. But think of it as someone trying to bring something imaginative to their otherwise monotonous workday.

**Disclaimer:** I claim no legal rights to these characters. I do not even _want_ to own legal rights to them. They give me enough trouble already.

**Dedication: **To the writers on FFnet who are, in my humble opinion, the best. There are very few. I can count them on one hand.

Especially to **Dualism**!

* * *

**Five: The Best Day Ever **

**"I was hoping it would be better than this."**

"Well, it's just the first week. We need to do some more advertising," Sora assured me. Cid and Sora's adoptive dad had sealed a business deal the week previous and immediately the pizzeria put three new pizzas on the menu: Classic Pineapple Hula, Chicken Pineapple Fiesta, and the Ham and Pineapple Favorite. Sales had gone up by a small percentage, and Sora seemed to be the only one confident that as people got used to the idea, we wouldn't have to worry about shutting down anymore.

"I'm going to head home and feed Pluto, bro."

"Sure."

The place was mostly empty. Earlier we'd had five families in, and a slew of orders, but after the day hit its peak, it plunged down again, and we barely made $200 over our average daily sales.

Pence and Hayner had been in earlier on delivery and helping me make pizza, but now it was just me and Axel.

"Don't think it's your fault," he offered when the place was empty.

"I wasn't thinking that," I scoffed, poking my head under the table and pulling out a can of pineapple to refill and some salami and mushrooms. But I had been thinking just that. It would be horrible for the place to close down just after Sora and I tried to help it back onto its feet. It would really suck.

"The way I see it," Axel began, leaning against the table, "We should have tried putting new stuff on the menu ages ago. We should have had a couple of new specials every month."

I poked my head out and frowned at him. "And you're bringing this up _now_?"

He shrugged. "I tried getting Cid on it when I first came here, but you know how it was then. Food costs were holding us back."

I nodded reluctantly. That was really where the trouble had started. Minimum wage had gone up. We increased prices and food got a little more expensive. That's when Naminé, a pretty blonde girl, had to leave. She'd been on registers before, and Axel had watched ovens. When she left, Axel took over register and I was saddled with the ovens, too. Pence had also been a regular driver then. That had been about four months ago. So when food expenses were no longer a problem, we were now suffering a major loss of customers.

"Hey," Axel said softly, moving the can of salami out of my reach, "Something's bothering you."

I glared at him and reached around to grab the bucket, only to find myself pinned up against the table, Axel holding me in a firm but gentle embrace. I sighed.

"I'm worried about losing my job."

He pulled back a little, holding me at arms length, palms warm on my shoulders.

"You'll find another, Rox."

"But it won't be good enough," I muttered, looking down at our shoes, smiling to myself when I saw my name scrawled in black pen on Axel's dark green Converse sneakers.

"What?" He tilted my chin upward, coaxing me to meet his eyes. He looked genuinely concerned, and instead of dropping the subject, I continued.

"Sora's adoptive family is really well-off, and when Sora's old enough, he's going to be in charge of that company. He'll be able to give mom everything she needs. Everything she ever wanted. And me? I'm the good for nothing twin stuck in a rut of minimum wage jobs."

Axel was silent for a long time.

"Roxas," he said, "Have you talked to Sora about this?"

I shook my head.

"Well," he smirked. "I'm not telling you what to do or anything. I know how you hate that. But what I think is this: You should tell Sora what you're feeling. That kid barely knows you, but I can tell he really cares about you and loves you like a brother should. He'll help you figure things out. As for your mom, I'm sure she's happy right where she is. She doesn't need a condo in Orlando and a manservant. She needs a loving son. And she's got two."

The phone rang just then, and he gave my arm an affectionate squeeze before answering, leaving me to consider all of what he'd said.

* * *

**When I got home Sora was playing _Surgeon General's Warning: Vinnie's Revenge_, Pluto on the floor, barking every now and then at the game console. **A box of chocolates was open on the coffee table, and I guessed that Riku the Hawiian mafia don stalker had struck again. I fell onto the couch in an exhausted heap, and smiled when Sora commented that I smelled like pizza.

"Hey, Sora?"

"Yeah?"

"I need to talk to you about something…"

He paused the game and put down the controller, offering me a chocolate. I took one filled with white chocolate crème and began. He looked distressed when I told him about how I was worried that I might lose my job, how I wanted to be able to take care of mom.

"Roxas," he said quietly, "It's going to be okay. You'll see! If you lose your job, you should just go back to school, and then you can help me be in charge of dad's company."

"You want me to?" I asked, awed.

"Of course! I meant what I said before. Now that I've found you, I don't ever want to be separated from you. Besides, we can make a good team."

"Yeah… we could." I felt a warmth spread out from inside out. Sora gave me a brief hug and went back to his game.

That night he crawled into bed with me and we stayed up making plans about how we were going to get sales up now that we had pineapple on the menu. We fell asleep in a heap of arms and legs, Pluto jumping on top of us in the middle of the night. We laughed and went back to sleep stroking his ears.

* * *

**- The Writer**


	6. Chapter 6

**I Have a Large, Thick Sausage

* * *

**

**Opening Note: **The title is for my coworker (henceforth to be known as The Muse or Great Lord of Pizza Ovens), who once announced that his favorite part of the day was when someone ordered a large sausage pizza on thick crust for dine in so that he could call out, "I have a large, thick sausage". Yes, it's a little immature. But think of it as someone trying to bring something imaginative to their otherwise monotonous workday.

**Disclaimer:** I claim no legal rights to these characters. I do not even _want_ to own legal rights to them. They give me enough trouble already.

**Dedication: **To the writers on FFnet who are, in my humble opinion, the best. There are very few. I can count them on one hand.

Especially to **Dualism**!

* * *

**Six: Struggle**

**I woke up to Sora singing the Goofy Goober song in the shower.** Pluto was at the foot of the bed on his back, head hanging of the edge, tongue lolling out. I snatched my stereo remote from the bedside table and turned on "Beating Hearts, Baby" to drown Sora out and got out of bed, slipping a pair of torn white jeans over my boxers and running my fingers though my hair in the usual routine. I scratched behind Pluto's ear; his tail thumped and his leg jiggled up and down fiercely, so that he fell off the bed into a pile of dirty clothes.

"Stupid dog," I murmured fondly, heading into the kitchen. I was just stirring up some hot chocolate for Sora (he didn't drink coffee) when the phone rang. I answered it, tilting my head into my shoulder so that I could pull some eggs out of the fridge.

"Hey, Roxas. Schedule change. You're working 6 to 9 tonight, not 4 to 9. It's been slow."

I frowned, cracking an egg into a frying pan. Normally Axel teased me a bit before getting down to business. I missed it.

"Fine, then. But call me if you need me," I said, verbally underlining the last to get him started.

"Sure thing, Rox."

I sighed, hanging up the phone and getting back to making breakfast, the moment of peace shattered. Today was Friday. Usually it was the busiest day of the week.

"I'm so excited about the Struggle match!" Sora said, coming into the kitchen, rubbing at his hair with a towel. Hayner and I had participated every season since we were eight, and when Sora heard, he insisted on coming along to support me. I'd also convinced him to enter, since he claimed that as a child he and his friend Tidus engaged in combat, Sora with a wooden sword and Tidus with a bo staff.

We had omelets for breakfast and then played some _Attack of the Island Zombies_ before heading over to the arena, me explaining the rules of Struggle to Sora. Basically, you smacked your opponent around with a three minute time limit. No below the belt hits were allowed and all points were scored with the Struggle bat. No hand-to-hand combat.

Hayner and I usually dominated the ranks, but Sora eliminated my best friend after his victory over Seifer, and then took me out. I made a mental note to never under estimate Sora again on the field. Even though I was ambidextrous and had the strength advantage, Sora was practiced and had great agility and reflexes. He was only second to the other guy that came as a last-minute entrant and had effortlessly climbed to the finals.

Riku.

Sora looked a little uneasy about a Struggle against him, but I smiled at him and made up a ridiculous victory chant that Pence, Olette and Hayner joined in on.

It did us no good in the end, as Sora was flattened nineteen points to four. And I couldn't help noticing that they were great fighters, the two of them. Sora's unforced grace with his defense, Riku's calculated, perfect offense. It was foreplay. I smirked, watching my brother's cheeks flush pink when he shook hands with Riku at the end. Sora was hopelessly in love. And he was lucky. Riku was devoted and he knew how to feed Sora's romantic side, yet still respected him enough to not hold back in a fight.

I didn't bring any of this up to Sora. Somehow I reasoned that he knew this already, and it would only take a few more little pushes in the right direction. But as far as I was concerned, Riku had my blessing.

* * *

**We were halfway back home, and Sora had been silent and pouty ever since Riku went away after the tournament, followed by a mass of pretty girls – including Olette.** I only smiled softly, knowing that Riku was a people person, and he liked to be in the middle of adoring people. There was no way he would drop Sora. 

Mom had called earlier to say she was coming over on Tuesday to make us dinner. I was looking forward to some great pasta and maybe a baked from scratch chocolate cake.

Sora was silent all through _Spongebob_ and _The Fairly Odd Parents_, not even laughing at the pudding joke. He finally cheered up some as I was getting dressed, no doubt anxious to see Axel. They'd been getting along very well, which I felt was a good thing. Sora claimed to miss his friends from home and was glad to be making new friends here.

"Hey Sora, could you run to the grocery store and get us some salami?" Axel said when he saw him. "We're out."

Sora took the munny Axel offered him and skipped out, looking slightly less down then earlier. There was an order on the table for a sausage and pineapple pizza and I started in on it, noting how quiet the place was today.

"Axel?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks… for the other day. I talked to Sora and we worked things out," I said, spreading the cheese over the sauce.

"I'm glad."

A small smile lit my face and I put the toppings on, picked up the board and swung around to put it in the oven.

Axel's hand closed over mine as I grasped the handle to close it again, and I didn't pull away. He moved so that he was closer to me, hooking his thumb through one of my belt loops and tugging me lightly a step toward him. I looked up, meeting his eyes. They were jade green, a color that should have reminded me of the sea, but instead I saw how intense they were and that they seemed to burn. Without really thinking about it – but I guess I'd decided it a while ago – I closed my eyes and waited. His breath, steady and warm, hitched, and I opened my eyes again, confused.

"Axel…?" I started to say, but he cut me off, breathing a single word out before leaning down to me and gently pressing his mouth to mine.

"…Beautiful."

The contact was brief, the pressure light as the fiery lick of a flame. He pulled back a little to gauge my reaction, and I looked down at the floor.

"What?"

"Well…" I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. "I expected something a little less tame from you."

He closed the distance between us again, taking his hand off of mine, tilting my chin up.

"I was trying to tell you something."

I searched his eyes for it and then quickly looked down again, comprehending. Heat rushed up to my face.

"Oh."

He chuckled and dropped his other hand past my waist, roughly gathering the flesh under the swell of my backside and bringing his lips to mine again, the fit and flurry of dancing flames in the passion of it so that I dropped the board and brought both hands up to his chest, pulling at the front of his shirt.

"Holy…" he murmured once we'd broken the kiss.

"Yeah…" I replied, my hands going slack, my whole body weak.

"No. Roxas…" I looked up at him and realized he wasn't referring to the intimacy.

"…Crap," I finished for him, meeting the eyes of at least two dozen girls, a handful of boys, and Riku Miyano in the middle of it all.

"I'm _definitely_ coming here more often," one girl said, getting a few people to close their gaping mouths and either nod in agreement or just continue staring.

Axel left me reluctantly, taking his post at the register, and the awkward silence broke right away and the orders started pouring in just as Sora came back with the salami.

"What's going on here?" he asked.

"I brought some people here," Riku explained, ignoring a few girls who were trying to get his attention. "I thought you guys could use the business."

Sora's face flushed pink again, and a stunning smile lit his face. Riku smiled back, and Sora, always the hopeless romantic, pounced on him with a cry of, "Riku Miyano, I love you!"

"Y-you do?" Riku asked, arms going around him automatically, eyes wide and surrounded by an aura of pure joy.

"Yes!" Sora clung to him.

"I think I'm going to be sick," a girl with violet blue eyes and dark red hair standing behind them said.

"Shut up, Kairi," Riku retorted.

Meanwhile, there were seven orders on the table. Seven! I was not trained to handle this.

"Axel…" I said slowly, "Are we getting Slammed?"

It took a full ten seconds for us both to start mentally panicking. "Call Pence!" I said frantically flinging pizza sauce onto the dough. "Call Hayner. And Naminé, too!"

Within twenty minutes Olette stepped behind the counter and helped Naminé on registers and Hayner and Pence got to work delivering – apparently Riku handed out flyers after the tournament – and Axel joined me at the table. We were in hell.

And it was great.

* * *

**- The Writer**

The other day at work we were getting Slammed and I asked The Smile (he and I are in charge of making pizzas) if we were in hell. Getting Slammed puts tons of pressure on everyone. Especially the pizza makers, and once I was so frantic that I said, very loudly to The Smile and The Muse: "Die! Just DIE! FALL DOWN AND DIE!!" And they stared at me. And I apologized and got back to work.


	7. Epilogue

**I Have a Large, Thick Sausage

* * *

**

**Opening Note: **The title is for my coworker (henceforth to be known as The Muse or Great Lord of Pizza Ovens), who once announced that his favorite part of the day was when someone ordered a large sausage pizza on thick crust for dine in so that he could call out, "I have a large, thick sausage". Yes, it's a little immature. But think of it as someone trying to bring something imaginative to their otherwise monotonous workday.

**Disclaimer:** I claim no legal rights to these characters. I do not even _want_ to own legal rights to them. They give me enough trouble already.

**Dedication: **To the writers on FFnet who are, in my humble opinion, the best. There are very few. I can count them on one hand.

Especially to **Dualism**!

* * *

**Epilogue: Love **

**"Roxas…" **

I rolled over in bed, reaching for and cuddling up to the warmth, vaguely aware of a hand playing with my hair, lips brushing over my forehead.

"Axel?" I murmured.

The warmth vibrated softly and Axel's breath tickled my ear with its flame whisper of laughter.

"Could you let go of me, kid? I need to go to the bathroom."

I pulled away reluctantly, carefully opening my eyes. Axel's form blocked the sun and I smiled at him as he leaned over me to nuzzle my hair.

"You _bastard_," I groaned as he slid one leg over the edge and planted it on the floor, "You shouldn't be able to _move_ after what I did to you last night."

He chuckled lightly, pressing a kiss to the nape of my neck as I rolled over to bury my face in the sheets, inhaling the musky scent of amber on them. It was as strong as incense. I let it drug me back to sleep and floated peacefully, my skin awake and aware of all the places that had been loved again and again the previous night.

I awoke again when Axel's warmth had faded from the mattress and threw both feet over the edge of the bed, snatching first a pair of boxers and then a pair of mistreated jeans from one of the many piles on the floor and pulling them on. I padded into the bathroom, washed, and went out into the hallway.

Riku and Sora were on the couch, watching SpongeBob, the case for _Tinted Rose: The Saga _in Sora's lap. Pluto was happily playing with his Goofy plush and effectively tearing it to shreds. Good dog.

"Morning, Beautiful," Axel murmured in my ear, wrapping his arms around me and trailing a hand down my bare chest.

I smirked.

"You left me this morning," I accused him.

"Sorry. I was making you breakfast."

I tilted my head up and sniffed the air. "Burning it, more like."

He cursed under his breath and went to go rescue it, limping like he'd been kicked in the shins every day for the past five days and 3,000 miles.

"Gods, Roxas," Sora breathed when Axel left the room, "Do you have him whipped or what?"

I grinned. "I will soon enough if he isn't already."

"I heard that!" Axel called from the kitchen.

"Never mind _that_," Riku spoke up, "I want to know what you did to make him walk like that." He put an arm around Sora. "You two pretty much ruined the mood for us, Axel moaning half the night. I'm going to start calling you The Machine, Roxas."

"I think the whole apartment complex will," Sora added.

"In fact," Riku said, not missing a beat, "I think that from now on when Axel calls out that he has a 'Large, thick sausage' at work, people will be likely to congratulate _you_."

That's it, Riku Miyano. You're sleeping with the fishes tonight.

They both laughed at the chagrined expression on my face and went back to watching the TV.

"Miyano," I said, "Are you actually watching this?"

"I _like_ SpongeBob," Riku retorted.

I gave a short bark of laughter and went into the kitchen, where Axel was viciously scraping what used to be egg from one of the frying pans. He nearly dropped it when I walked in and turned the stove off with a flick of his wrist. He gave me an apologetic smile and threw the pan in the sink.

"Don't worry about it," I said. "We'll get a bagel or something on the way to work."

We'd hired Naminé and Olette the previous night and Pence and Hayner as well. Sora insisted on helping out, so he was the new dough roller, and Riku hired himself as a driver. It was pretty much a given that he'd excel at the job. After all the girls that followed him in last night, we were sure that delivery sales would be up even higher with him handling it.

"I wanted to make you breakfast," Axel muttered.

I grinned and kicked aside a chair, lifting myself up on the kitchen table.

"Come here."

He did, walking as carefully as he could and putting his hands on my hips. I reached up and grabbed fistfuls of his hair, dragging him down slowly and pressing my lips to his, dropping one hand to pull at one of his belt loops, eliciting a strangled gasp that I took advantage of, deepening the kiss and pulling back to tease his upper lip, dipping back into his mouth and out again, repeating the torture.

"Roxas," he moaned. "Do you _want_ to make me a cripple?"

I laughed against his jaw, pulling him to me and gently biting a sensitive spot on his neck before whispering, "I want _you_ this time, Axel."

His breathing altered momentarily and I felt his heart flutter against mine.

"So horny in the mornings," he said, pushing me back, clearing the newspaper and a few empty Styrofoam coffee cups from the table. "I want you," he said, dropping a kiss into the small hollow below my neck. "But I hurt like hell, Rox. It's not going to be as rough as I want to be with you."

I felt heat spread across my face.

"It's you and me," I said at last. "It'll be good."

He nodded and touched his nose to mine, softly sweeping his lips over mine a few times before I clasped my hands together behind his neck and opened my mouth to him, felt his hands working at the bindings of my jeans, running fingers up the inside of my thigh and pulling at my boxers.

* * *

**We were late for work.

* * *

**

_I was happy with my life._

_Then Axel came._

_And I loved it.

* * *

_

**- The Writer**

**Ending Note: **Yesterday was Valentine's day. We got Slammed at work. No, seriously. A coworker of mine wondered aloud why. "It's not like a heart-shaped pizza is romantic," she said. Yeah. We were making heart-shaped pizzas.

"I'll bet I know why," I answered. "A bunch of people probably tried to get into good restaurants but they were packed or they forgot to make reservations so they went home and thought, 'Fuck this, let's order a pizza'."


End file.
